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James Thomson Callender (1757 or 1758–1803)

James Thomson Callender was a
partisan journalist known for attacking Federalists but also his one-time Republican ally, Thomas Jefferson. Born in
Scotland, Callender was a Scottish nationalist who published pamphlets critical of
the British government. When a warrant was issued for his arrest, he fled first to
Ireland and then, in 1793, to Philadelphia. There he wrote newspaper items critical
of the administrations of George
Washington and John Adams and a pamphlet that exposed an extramarital affair
by Alexander Hamilton. After the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798, Callender, who
had moved to Richmond by this time,
published another pamphlet critical of President Adams. In the spring of 1800 he was
tried and convicted of sedition in Richmond and served nine months in jail. When
Jefferson was elected
president in 1801, Callender expected to be rewarded with a political
position. When he was not, he turned on his former ally, accusing the president of having
fathered children by his enslaved servant Sally Hemings. Callender purchased part ownership of
the Richmond Recorder newspaper, but quit after quarrels with
his coeditor. He accidentally drowned in the James River in 1803. MORE...

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Early Years

Callender was born in Scotland in either 1757
or 1758, but the place and date of his birth and the names of his parents are not
known. He may have been the son of a tobacco merchant, and he was probably
orphaned at an early age. Callender obtained a basic classical education and a
strong dose of Calvinism. In 1782 he became a clerk in a public office in
Edinburgh, where he learned firsthand about corruption and misuse of influence.
Callender became a registered messenger at arms in 1787. He entered Edinburgh's
literary circle through the publication of several anonymous pamphlets and poems,
including Deformities of Dr. Samuel Johnson (1782), a
pamphlet critical of the famed author and disparager of Scotland. The work showed
Callender to be both a well-read man and a slashing writer.

An intense Scottish nationalist, Callender published a series of pamphlets that
brought him into conflict with the authorities. His Political
Progress of Britain (Part First) (1792) led to an interrogation late in
December 1792, and early in January a warrant was issued for his arrest. After he
failed to attend the court proceedings, Callender was declared an outlaw and went
into hiding in Dublin, where he associated with leaders of the Society of United
Irishmen. In spring 1793, leaving his wife (whose name is unknown) and three
children in Scotland, he immigrated to the United States and arrived in May
1793.

Rabble-Rousing Republican

Through his Irish connections, Callender
obtained work in Matthew Carey's Philadelphia bookstore and ultimately became the
congressional reporter for Andrew Brown's Philadelphia
Gazette, a position he helduntil the spring of 1796. In a period of
intensifying partisanship, Callender became intimately associated with the
emerging Republican Party and earned the enmity of leading Federalists. Between
1794 and 1798 he contributed anonymous news articles and columns critical of the
administrations of George Washington and John Adams to the Philadelphia Aurora. Besides republishing his earlier works, Callender
produced new pamphlets attacking the policies of the American government,
especially those regarding trade, as subordinating American interests to those of
the British government. Callender and other radical émigrés shared an Anglophobia
and an urban economic nationalism. They rejected not only Alexander Hamilton's
fiscal program but also the agrarianism of the Virginia planters of their own
party. Callender's reputation was further enhanced by William Cobbett's virulent
attacks on his work in Porcupine's Gazette, one of
Philadelphia's Federalist newspapers. During this time Callender's wife and
children joined him in Philadelphia, and a fourth child was born before May
1796.

Callender achieved his first great notoriety by reporting on Hamilton's adulterous
affair with Maria Reynolds in the History of the United States
for 1796 (1797). Life in Philadelphia eventually became hazardous for the
outspoken journalist. In addition to the recurrence of yellow fever, threats to
his personal safety, and mounting personal financial problems, Callender's
livelihood was threatened by the adoption of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which
sought to muzzle political criticism of the government. By the summer of 1798 his
wife had died. Coming under increasing attack for his activities and hoping to
remove any danger that he might be deported once the Naturalization and Alien Acts
of 1798 passed, Callender on June 4 petitioned for American citizenship. The
following month he abandoned Philadelphia for the relative safety of Virginia,
leaving his children behind.

For several months Callender stayed at the
Loudoun County plantation of Senator Stevens Thomson Mason, and then in May 1799
he moved to Richmond. He contributed articles critical of the Adams administration
to the leading local Republican newspaper, the Richmond
Examiner, and published his most famous work, The
Prospect Before Us, Volume 1 (1800), a highly partisan political history
of the 1790s with a decidedly southern emphasis and numerous insulting remarks
about Adams and his policies. On May 24, 1800, the U.S. District Court grand jury
indicted Callender for sedition, and after a sensational trial presided over by
U.S. Supreme Court associate justice Samuel Chase, Callender was convicted on June
3, 1800, sentenced to jail for nine months, and fined $200. His trial and
imprisonment made Callender a political martyr. Republicans raised money for his
relief, and the Republican press throughout the country condemned Chase's partisan
behavior during the trial and made suppression of the press an issue in that
year's presidential election. While incarcerated Callender wrote and published two
more volumes of The Prospect Before Us.

Released from jail, Callender resumed his
activities with renewed enthusiasm, much to the dismay of moderate Republicans.
Because Thomas Jefferson had covertly supported his journalistic efforts in
Philadelphia and openly encouraged him in Virginia, Callender viewed him as a
patron whose obligations were enhanced by his incarceration and sufferings. Not
surprisingly, after Jefferson became president in March 1801 Callender expected a
pardon and immediate remission of his fine, and he also insisted on being
appointed postmaster of Richmond. Jefferson retroactively pardoned Callender after
his release but failed to bestow a government job.

Later Years

Bitterly disappointed, Callender severed his
ties with the Richmond Examiner and gravitated to the Richmond Recorder: or, Lady's and Gentleman's Miscellany, a
newspaper in which he acquired a part interest in February 1802. Much to the
surprise and chagrin of his former allies, he repudiated the Republicans and
openly criticized the Jefferson administration with the same strong invective he
had formerly directed toward the Federalists. Beginning in September 1802
Callender published a series of articles in the Recorderaccusing
Jefferson of maintaining a long relationship with his slave Sally Hemings
and fathering her children. Jeffersonians at the time and many subsequent
Jefferson biographers discounted Callender's assertions and emphasized his
partisan bias, but recent scholarship suggests that even though vengeance
certainly prompted Callender to publish his critical articles about Jefferson's
personal life, he was probably reporting accurately.

Circulation of the Recorder increased briefly, spurred by
reports of Callender's public altercation in December 1802 with George Hay, the
Republican attorney who had represented him at his sedition trial, but sustained
publishing success proved as elusive as ever. Amid threats of violence from
Richmond Republicans, Callender quarreled with his coeditor over money and, facing
an uncertain economic future, withdrew from the RichmondRecorder in April 1803. Callender, who often found solace
in drink during periods of crisis, drowned in the James River at Richmond on July
17, 1803, and was buried in a local church cemetery later the same day. A
coroner's jury returned a verdict of accidental drowning as a result of
intoxication.

Major Works

Deformities of Dr. Samuel Johnson (1782)

Political Progress of Britain (Part First)
(1792)

History of the United States for 1796 (1797)

The Prospect Before Us, Volumes 1–3 (1800–1801)

Time Line

1757 or 1758
- James Thomson Callender is born in Scotland.

1782
- James Thomson Callender becomes a clerk in a public office in Edinburgh, Scotland.

May 1793
- On the run from British authorities, James Thomson Callender immigrates to the United States.

1794–1798
- James Thomson Callender contributes anonymous items critical of George Washington and John Adams to the Philadelphia Aurora.

Summer 1798
- By this time the wife of James Thomson Callender has died.

1798
- Congress passes the Alien and Sedition Acts, a series of laws that increased the residency requirement for American citizenship, gave the president authority to deport or imprison illegal aliens, and restricted speech against the government.

June 4, 1798
- James Thomson Callender, a native of Scotland, petitions for United States citizenship.

May 1799
- James Thomson Callender moves to Richmond, where he writes newspaper articles critical of Federalists.

May 24, 1800
- A U.S. District Court grand jury indicts James Thomson Callender for sedition.

June 3, 1800
- James Thomson Callender is convicted of sedition in the U.S. District Court in Richmond. He is sentenced to nine months in jail and fined $200.

March 1801
- James Thomson Callender is embittered when he does not receive a political appointment by the newly elected president, Thomas Jefferson.

February 1802
- James Thomson Callender acquires a part interest in the Richmond Recorder.

September 1, 1802
- In "The President, Again," published on September 1, 1802, in the Richmond Recorder, a Federalist newspaper, James Thomson Callender turns on his former patron, accusing President Thomas Jefferson of having fathered children with a slave named Sally (presumably Sally Hemings).

December 1802
- James Thomson Callender and his lawyer, George Hay, have a public altercation in Richmond.

April 1803
- Amidst quarrels with his coeditor, James Thomson Callender quits the Richmond Recorder.

July 17, 1803
- James Thomson Callender accidentally drowns in the James River.